As many villains as Fox's catastrophic Gotham has teased thus far, there's clearly quite a lot of master criminals and, well, homicidal lunatics to bring out. For months now, I've secretly been dreaming of Silicon Valley's Zach Woods playing the younger version of Ventriloquist, but then, a comic actor of Woods' caliber might very well take a look at the script for...any...episode of Gotham and not-so-politely decline. That being said, the news today that Nathan Darrow, who plays Meechum in House of Cards, will soon appear as one of Gotham's greatest villains suggests that the show will be adding some solid supporting players. The villain in question? The cryogenics engineer Victor Fries, more commonly known as Mr. Freeze, who eventually dons a suit that keeps him alive and gives him the power to turn people and things into glaciers.
You may be more familiar with Arnold Schwarzenegger's disastrous take on the character from Joel Schumacher's horrendous Batman & Robin. The character was only done well in one, perhaps inevitable instance, that being on Batman: The Animated Series, one of the top five best animated programs the 1990s produced; Star Trek veteran Michael Ansara voiced the character. Darrow, however, could do very well with such a character, considering that much of his work in House of Cards depended on him conveying a series of emotions without saying much; Freeze is known for his, er, cold outward demeanor.
The character actor, who will next be seen in Billions alongside Damien Lewis and Paul Giamatti, will begin appearing in Gotham come the November 30th episode, with no real word on how his road to becoming the villain will be paced or, for that matter, how Nora Fries will figure into the hash of nonsense on Gotham. Darrow may indeed prove a rare respite from the rampant silliness that the show has become primarily marked by.
